


Just One

by Sparrowhawkshadow



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Anders (Dragon Age) Lives, Anders (Dragon Age) Positive, Antihero Anders (Dragon Age), Avvar Culture and Customs, BAMF Anders (Dragon Age), BAMF Ser-Pounce-A-Lot, Bethany and Carver Hawke Live, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Canonical Rape/Non-con, Champion Anders (Dragon Age), Developing Friendships, Dragon Age II Spoilers, Dragon Age: Inquisition Spoilers, Friends Like These, Hero Anders (Dragon Age), Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Inquisitor Anders (Dragon Age), Justice Lives (Dragon Age), M/M, Mage Hawke (Dragon Age), Mage Rebellion (Dragon Age), Mage-Templar Dynamics (Dragon Age), Morally Ambiguous Character, No Heroes, Non-Canonical Main Character, Not A Fix-It, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Not Really Character Death, Not redemption, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Anders (Dragon Age), Pre-Dragon Age II, Purple Hawke (Dragon Age), Rare Pairings, Sarcastic Hawke (Dragon Age), Slow Burn, Slow To Update, WIP, We Do Not Abandon Adopted Kittens Or Justice To The Fade Here, Work In Progress, anders critical
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:00:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28917987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparrowhawkshadow/pseuds/Sparrowhawkshadow
Summary: ~ In vain, Varric tries to find a scoundrel willing to take on his quest to go hunt for the mysterious Grey Warden in Darktown so soon after the Fifth Blight. With very little choice, Varric himself wanders into Darktown alone, and meets someone he did not expect.He just hopes it won't end like his usual stories do. But with an actual knight in I-shit-you-not literal shining armour to take up the cause, what can go wrong?Well. Now you've said it. ~
Relationships: Anders/Justice (Dragon Age), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Kudos: 4





	Just One

**Author's Note:**

> ~ I have so many headcanons from Jaws of Hakkon.
> 
> Ironically enough, this was inspired by the amazing Malukah's Mass Effect tribute song "Reignite" (Youtube, 2012) when I was researching something else :-D . Also, the existence of various Avvar-mods on Nexusmods might have made an impression.~
> 
> ~This story vaguely belongs with "Burn", but for now, both work separately too. I'll write a note if that changes. 
> 
> Updates will be ... slow. For now. I have to make headway with several other projects first. Actually, there won't be a schedule - when I write something I think might be interesting I'll post it.  
> This is also the first story I'm actually trying to write linearly, so ... chapters may be edited content-wise post posting. I'll put a list at the end to keep it /vaguely/ from being a big mess. I do have a plan how and where this is going, but it'll take me awhile to get there. It should run to post-Inquisition. Maybe some shortcuts to mushrooms, who knows.
> 
> Slightly pro-mage, fiercely pro-mage in character of course^^ . No Anders-and-Justice has been harmed in the ... uh. Slightly squished, maybe. But bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the end, I promise. ~

#### Prologue. Of Mortal Men

~~~

The smoke rolls hot across the city, heavy and lilac and orange and grey and copper and burning his eyes as the flames burn the walls. Something wet drips across his face. He is not sure whether it is tears or blood.

They are victorious, but so many lie dead. He feels his heart clench inside his chest, his chest clench on a new breath that tastes like human ashes. The healer inside him instinctively flinches. Too many they could not save, and yet more they could as the fiends are consumed by the flames. They will strike down no more innocents.

Too many died in the flames. On the outside, his own skin cracks, and bursts, and reforms. He walks through the flames without quail even as some part in him seems to think that he should, the stench and the smoke of burning flesh in his eyes and in his mouth. It tastes like death, and it tastes like life.

They must press on. They will defeat the evil that lies beneath. His face bleeds until all the fluid is turned to vapour that flares blue into the inferno. It cannot touch them.

They are Justice.

They are not of mortal men, not yet. But they have taken up the mantle, and now, they must _become_.

They are Justice. They are _Vengeance_.

The breath fades, and only ash remains. The fire burns, and yet, he does not think it should. But surely, it must?

It is fire, but so are they. Yet they are more than what they are as both.

They are ...

They are Anders.

They are their body, and they burn.

They are Anders. Just Anders. He's just Anders.

Around him ...

Amaranthine burns.

~~~


End file.
